14 Wing hosts specialized course for RCEME vehicle technicians
A small team with big expertise grew its capability with a 14 Wing Greenwood-hosted Aircraft Maintenance Support Equipment (AMSE) training course this Fall.
The three-week in-class and hands-on curriculum familiarizes Canadian Army vehicle technicians with “all the equipment that’s needed to get an airplane in the air,” says course warrant Warrant Officer Jean-Michel Gauthier.
“These are all already trained vehicle techs – they can fix anything from a chainsaw to a Leopard and everything in between – there is so much equipment, there’s never a boring moment. But – the air force has some specific ways of doing things and some specific equipment” that’s not taught in the trade’s school: hydraulic fluid units and testers, air conditioning trailers, CSUs (combined servicing units) that provide turbine engine-powered pneumatic and electric power to an aircraft, mobile nitrogen generators….
The Army’s Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers supports on-the-ground vehicle maintenance for Royal Canadian Air Force bases: here in Greenwood, that’s about 40 people, including materiel, weapons and electronic-optronic technicians working under 14 Mission Support Squadron’s Transport and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Flight (TEME).
“The AMSE course is given when you get posted to an air force base, but it only runs once a year. The vehicle techs need the knowledge, so this is the intro.”
Gauthier says hosting the course in Greenwood means local technicians had a better opportunity to attend, as there are always funding and time pressures that determine who can attend away courses. As a small shop, if something comes up in 14 Wing’s day-to-day operations, they can still respond to urgent needs.
“These are the specialists of the RCEME trade,” Gauthier says. “Very, very few people will have this course in their careers.”
There are three Greenwood vehicle technicians on the AMSE course – two military members, and one civilian. The other five students are from Bagotville and Yellowknife, with the two instructors from 17 Mission Support Squadron, Winnipeg.
“This is a specialized course, like what we’d do for Leopards or heavy equipment, and some techs could be in for a year or others for 15 years before they get the AMSE course,” says instructor Master Corporal Randy Hoang. “They need the course to write off on maintenance work, inspections and all the forms.”
Gauthier thinks it’s been about a decade since 14 Wing’s vehicle tech shop last hosted the AMSE course, but everyone is happy to see it.
“It means, while the expertise is here, we’re always learning – in class, on the shop floor, over the lunch break. And then that knowledge remains here.”
